Once in a lifetime to Avignon

It's only a good hour's drive from Vaision la Romaine to Avignon - so let's go! Even the arrival is something special: from the main road straight into the parking garage, park the car, go up two floors and then - wow! - you're standing right on the large square in front of the monumental Pope's Palace. What kind of city is this? From the Pope's Palace, you go down the Rue de la République with its many street cafés, boutiques and souvenir shops to the SNCF train station, or rather to the city wall. We're probably not really the target group, which is why our enthusiasm is limited. We could have skipped the trip on the tourist train, which is otherwise a tried and tested way of quickly getting an overview of an unfamiliar place. But you always only realize that afterwards. So we go up to the Pope's Palace, go through the security check and buy tickets. You pay extra for the newly created courtyard garden. And then you find yourself in these huge, almost empty rooms, which testify to the sheer megalomania of the church leaders of the time. What they didn't extort from the people with the threat of hellish torture... Almost overwhelmed by these impressive rooms, we head for the Pont Saint-Bénézet, the half bridge that became world famous because of a chanson. Another security check and 4 Euro entrance fee (reduced for seniors!) so that a little later you can stand on this remnant of the bridge - the other half went down the river or the Rhône in the 17th century. Well, you ask yourself, why do you do that? Because the Baedecker says: "The view of Avignon is enough to make you fall to your knees." However, it is supplemented with "...at sunset." And that's not all.